Gap between greenest and most polluting car-makers closes

The gap between the most and least fuel-efficient automakers appears to be closing, primarily as a result of tough new European Union rules demanding cuts in carbon emissions.

That is the conclusion of a major new report from green lobby group Transport & Environment, which assessed the average carbon emissions of manufacturers' European fleets and found that the greatest improvements in fuel efficiency were delivered by those firms with relatively carbon-intensive fleets.

BMW led the field, cutting carbon emissions per kilometre across its fleet by 10 per cent during 2008, while Mazda, Hyundai and Ford completed the top four, delivering improvements of between 8.2 and 6.7 per cent.

In contrast, those firms already boasting relatively green fleets delivered more modest improvements. For example, Fiat and Peugeot-Citroen, which have the lowest average emissions across their fleets, delivered improvements last year of just 2.9 and 2 per cent respectively. Honda, Toyota and Renault, all of which also have relatively low average fleet emissions, recorded similar improvements of between 2 and 3 per cent.

Jos Dings, director of Transport & Environment, said that the wide variation in fuel efficiency improvements provided evidence that EU legislation introduced last year requiring car firms to deliver average emissions of 130g/km by 2015 and 95g/km by 2020 were working.

"If the overall drop in average CO2 emissions was purely related to the financial crisis, fuel prices or changing consumer behaviour, we would have expected to see every company reducing much more equally," he explained. "But what is actually happening is that car-makers are seeing how far they have to cut and changing their fleets accordingly.”

He added that the evidence that legally binding targets were working should add fresh impetus to plans to extend carbon emissions rules to cover vans and lorries. "Clearly regulation is working, and if it works for cars, it will work for vans, where progress so far has been even worse," he argued. " Fuel-efficient vans will be good for the environment, and save billions on fuel costs for the many businesses, small and large that depend on them."

The report also praised BMW, arguing that the 10 per cent improvement in average emissions proved that technological innovations can deliver deep cuts in vehicle's emissions. "Given the fact that the weight of its vehicles has remained virtually the same, [BMW's] improvement is not due to a shift towards smaller cars (eg the Mini), but is most likely due to its "Efficient Dynamics" programme, a range of fuel-saving measures that has been introduced across the full range," the report stated. "Progress since 2006 stands at 16 per cent."

However, the report showed that overall average emissions for new cars sold in Europe fell just 3.3 per cent to 153.5g/km, still well short of the 2015 target of 130g/km.

Friends of the Earth's senior transport campaigner Tony Bosworth said that the UK's performance was particularly poor with average emissions for 2008 of 158 g/km lagging well behind Portugal, France and Italy. He added that the onus was on the government to "do more to encourage drivers to buy smarter cars that use less fuel by increasing the tax on gas-guzzlers".